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Dorset, VT Marble. It's everywhere, and hard to miss around Dorset. Take a gander at the large marble mansion on Dorset West Road, set back in the trees south of Marble West Inn. Although none of the six quarries that once made Dorset the most extensive quarrying center in Vermont still operates, people swim in an abandoned marble quarry that’s most picturesque on the east side of Route 30 just south of the village. Recently identified by huge slabs of marble placed haphazardly beside the road, the Norcross-West Quarry (1785) is the oldest in the United States. Look for the oldest marble house in the U.S. next to the quarry. Local Lore. During Vermont's Bicentennial,
the Dorset Historical Society and Museum moved to the Bley
House, donated as its headquarters. It’s open Wednesday, Friday and
Saturday from April-October. Take a recorded village walking tour, learn
about the local marble and cheese-making industries or trace the
genealogy of a Vermont ancestor here. Another local gem is the Dorset
Village Public Library with its McIntyre Art Gallery, located in the
restored Gray's Tavern building at Church and Main Streets, open daily
except Sunday. Dorset Playhouse, Cheney Road, Dorset. Tucked away in the trees just off Church Street, the rustic, all-wood barn with the red and white awning on the side was the first summer theater in Vermont. Since 1976, it has been home to the Dorset Theater Festival, a non-profit professional theater company importing casts from New York and Los Angeles. Its rediscovery of Cole Porter's 1938 musical “You Never Know” went on national tour. Other new plays have gone on to New York and Washington. (802) 867-5777. Performances nightly except Monday, June-September. Tickets, $23 to $36.
Shopping. Peltier's General Store has been the center of Dorset life since 1816, the more so since it was acquired in 1976 by Jay Hathaway and his wife Terri, who augmented its everyday goods with exotica like balsamic vinegars, cheddar cheese from Shelburne Farms, aromatic coffee beans and fine wines. Just back from New York with an array of new items, Jay said his store “is ever-changing because we don't want to be routine.” Peltier's celebrated its 175th anniversary during Vermont's Bicentennial and abounds with every need from newspapers to champagne. Equally historic but thoroughly unchanging through six generations of a single family is the H.M. Williams General Store, two attached barns identified by a small sign at the southern edge of town and an incredible jumble of merchandise placed helter-skelter (foodstuffs amidst the hardware, boxes of ladies' shoes identified with a cardboard sign: “With this quality and these prices, let the big boys compete”). Prices are marked by crayon and the cash register is a pouch worn around his waist by proprietor Dennis Brownlee. While we waited for 50 pounds of sunflower birdseed for a bargain $13.10, the woman ahead of us bought 50 pounds of rabbit pellets and was told where she could find a bale of hay. A few other Dorset stores like the Flower Brook Pottery and The Old Cow’s Tail and Judd Gregory Antiques are of interest. The Dorset Gallery on the Green represents many artists, while the Gallery on the Marsh features the fine art of John Pitcher and Sue Weston. More than 200 heirloom quilts are offered by Marie Miller American Quilts. South of town is the J.K. Adams Co. factory store, which stocks a large assortment of woodware and housewares made from native hardwoods for the likes of L.L. Bean and Williams Sonoma. Butcher blocks, knife racks, bowls, cutlery and homespun tablecloths are for sale at substantial savings. Its great new kitchen store stocks cooking accessories and housewares you might not find elsewhere. Adjacent Manchester offers fine shopping opportunities, especially in its ever-growing array of fashionable outlet stores. Southern Vermont Arts Center, West Road, Manchester. High up a mountainside along the back road between Manchester and Dorset is this special place not to be missed. The oldest cultural institution in Vermont, it was started in 1929 when five local artists banded together to display their works at the Dorset Town Hall. Inside a 28-room Georgian Colonial mansion known as Yester House are galleries with changing exhibits, an expanded performing arts hall seating 400, and a café for lunch. The new Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum is described as the center’s crown jewel. Designed by architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen, it is a stunning contemporary facility with soaring, skylit spaces in which to display the center’s 800-piece permanent collection and traveling exhibitions. The Manchester Garden Club restored and maintains the Boswell Botany Trail, a three-quarter-mile walk past hundreds of wildflowers and 67 varieties of Vermont ferns, all identified by club members. An hour's hike through the woods is another attraction, and the sculpture garden featuring a 285-year-old sugar maple is bordered by amazing vistas. (802) 362-1405. www.svac.org. Open
Tuesday-Saturday 10 to 5, Sunday noon to 5. Closed two weeks in late
April and early May. Adults, $6. Mother Myrick's Confectionery & Ice Cream Parlor, Route 7A, Manchester Center. We can’t ever seem to get through this area without stopping at Mother Myrick’s, the ultimate ice-cream parlor and confectionery shop. One of the things that lures us is the fudge sauce – so good that a friend to whom we give it hides her jar in a cupboard and eats it with a spoon. Here you can buy the most extraordinary homemade chocolates, get a croissant and cappuccino in the morning, tea and a slice of Vermont maple cheesecake in the afternoon, or a piece of grand marnier truffle cake and espresso at night. Ice-cream sodas, milkshakes, floats, sundaes and pastries are served in a fantastic art-deco setting with etched-glass panels, bentwood cases, light columns and the like done by gifted Vermont craftsmen. (802) 362-1560 or (888) 669-7425.
www.mothermyricks.com. Open daily 10 to 6, summer and peak periods, 10
to 10.
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